Daily Archives: 16 November 2009

Teaser Tuesdays: Holiday Grind by Cleo Coyle

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On Teaser Tuesdays readers are asked to:

  • Grab your current read.
  • Let the book fall open to a random page.
  • Share with us two (2) “teaser” sentences from that page, somewhere between 7 and 12 lines.
  • You also need to share the title of the book that you’re getting your “teaser” from … that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you’ve given.

My teaser this week is from Holiday Grind, by Cleo Coyle. I’ve been reading it from my cozy house, where it finally feels like November (49 degrees at 6:41 PM) and taking breaks to mock the people across the street who don’t seem to know how their moving truck works.

If you don’t know the Coffeehouse Mysteries, you should seriously check them out. Anyway, here’s the teaser:

There was nothing like walking through the Village on a snowy winter night. The few vehicles on the slippery street crept along no faster than horse-drawn carriages. Every surface appeared flocked with white; the pungent smell of active old fireplaces floated through the air; and bundled couples hurried past dark storefronts, eager to get back to their warm apartments or inside a cozy pub for a glass of mulled wine or mug of Irish coffee.

As I passed by St. Luke’s churchyard, the whole world seemed to go silent, save the icy flurries that still pecked at my parka and the crunch, crunch, crunching of my winter boots. At one intersection I stood alone, watching a traffic light provide a signal for crossroads that had no traffic. Hands in pockets, I waited half amused as the bright red light flipped to green in an unintentional
Christmas display just for me.

from Holiday Grind, chapter 3, by Cleo Coyle.

Sunday Salon: Children’s Stories

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The Sunday Salon.com

Despite the fact that I’ve been reading enough mysteries lately to re-paper the rooms in several haunted mansions, it’s children’s stories that are on my mind this week.

Last week, I had the wonderful experience of attending Peter Yarrow’s (of Peter, Paul and Mary) performance/book signing at the Jewish Community Center in Dallas. Unlike a formal concert, this was a more intimate affair. He spoke and sang for about an hour, inviting various kids up on stage to help out, and showing off several of his books.

The newest, Day is Done is the latest in his collection of stories based on his songs. The first was, of course, Puff, the Magic Dragon. I now have signed copies of each, got to converse with Peter for the second time in my life (the first was in August, 2002, in California), and have a lovely photo with Peter to help me remember the event.

And did I mention the books?

But kiddie lit is also on my brain because of an old Leo Buscaglia book, The Fall of Freddie the Leaf. I was first introduced to it about 27 years ago when I was part of a team from the Modesto UU Fellowship that performed the book in a reader’s theatre format. I was twelve at the time.

Today, I was again part of such a performance, on the stage at my church (Oak Cliff UU). You see, our church has recently lost two of its elders, and everyone is still grieving, still raw. I mentioned the book when I was at lunch with our minister and our associate minister, and they said, “So you’ll stage it as a dramatic moment, yes?”

And so I did.

And today we read.

And there was not a single dry eye.

But we needed the release.

Badly.

So, I may be reading mainly mysteries, but I’ve been reminded lately that even adults can take a moment to see things from a child’s perspective, and be the better for it.